“Unusual, un-virtual Camino experiences this week. Thursday morning was filled with a short walk west of Astorga to the memorial garden in Valdeviejes with none-other than Stephen Shields and Johnniewalker Santiago of WeWalkForYou2020.org. We looked at the progress of planned improvements to the garden area and envisioned the way it might appear when completed. It was a great followup to tapas and drinks the night before celebrating “Buy a Priest a Beer Day” in Astorga. What? You didn’t do it? Add it to September 9th on your calendar.
Then at 11 am our friend Tomás picked us up and took us to his wife’s childhood home in Santibáñez where the extended family spends the summer months. Tomás was preparing some food from the garden and all was pretty normal until his wife, Marycarmen, arrived and encouraged us to leave the kitchen. So Tomás took us where he spends the middle of most days, the local Albergue.
Yes, a local guy meets other local guys at the albergue and enjoys drinks and tapas. Back in the US I called this the ‘Geezer Table’ found in many family restaurants. I admit to having occupied a seat at this table more than once. Same guys saying the same stuff to each other for years. Tomás told our story in proper Spanish (I wish I had recorded it, it sounded so good!) and we got to know the guys around the table. Some were cousins and brothers and the like. Then Marycarmen showed up and you could tell she was a regular at the table too! The tapas and drinks were informal and great – croquetas, mussels, patatas fritas, aceitunas – and the conversation was wonderful for us as only one person spoke at a time at a leisurely pace. Nothing heated or contentious.
What had me from the start was that local folks congregated at the albergue in this small town. Today two pilgrims were at another table, but I understand pilgrims often join in the conversation with the townspeople.
So what’s the point here?
Just as Felipe walked a pilgrimage on his farm in Vashon Island, and many of us are participating in virtual Caminos online, and Stephen and John are carrying others’ prayers, intentions, or things to the Cruz de Ferro, these local people are realizing another level of what our hearts are led to experience along the Camino. They are witnessing pilgrims, even in this unusual year, they are communicating in a supportive and loving way, and yes, they are enjoying the tapas, coffee and cold drinks enjoyed along the way. We were first-timers at the table and were accepted immediately and non-judgmentally. Sounds like the Camino to me.
Wrapping it back around to the White Eagle posts this week, “You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation.” I sure experienced that with both The WeWalkForYou team and the albergue ‘team.’
Please be looking out for your chance to do so too! ¡Buen Camino!
With bright vibrations love,
Ronaldo“
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As I’ve walked round my neighborhood, one of the gifts of Covid I have seen is lots of dads out in the park with their kids. No dumping them with tv, they are playing ball or dancing or having a picnic. Suddenly we have more time with family and at the same time our local friends – our old fogeys Table, have become really precious.
Wonderful post today. Walking my personal Camino with my faithful retriever “SeaSea”. Actually up to 7 miles per day. Excellent progress since I couldn’t walk 1000 feet six months ago. Spain is in my crosshairs but understand the stars will dictate the timing. My usual 3 month scans are coming up in 2 weeks and don’t have the pre-scan anxiety which seems to accompany me to the institute ever time. Hopefully nothing will light up this time and anything that shows can be excused as “residual radiation “. As a wonderful friend and doctor tells me frequently that “I am a recipient of a supernatural miracle “. I will remember that and keep my eye on the prize. Thank you all for the daily thoughts – Jay
Hola Ron,
Qué bonito! I wish I would have been one of those sitting at the table too… Years ago, in one of my research projects, we were trying to set up a decent study about the Mediterranean Diet outside the places where the Mediterranean Diet was the daily diet (which as we know, for example, is not Madrid or Rome…!!!) I have been reading scientific paper after scientific paper after scientific paper full of complicated chemical names of the latest healthiest fatty acid discovered, until I came up with a book called “The blue zones”. The book was written by a journalist who went to experience life in the places in the world where the life expectancy was the highest, some of these places were in rural Italy, or rural Greece…
And yes, people there were eating a healthy traditional Mediterranean Diet, but these people also were taking the chairs to the doors of the houses to chat with their neighbors, and were part of the community, and were walking to the village square to meet the others who were there too after having taking a siesta, and they walked almost everywhere as most of their friends were walking distance, and their shared their lives and lived in houses with a vegetables garden and no key-locks!
I remembered I went to the office of my director and told him I was not going to pursue the research. He asked me why, super surprised, as actually, he didn’t want me to pursue that research either but I begged him so much that I ended convincing him that I should… and I remember having told him that my conclusion was that what was making the people in these places to live longer were the tables they were sitting at to eat and talk, and not the food they were eating…
Something like 20 years later, I am now thinking if that is not the reason why in Spanish, when we toast, while sitting at the table with friends, we say “SALUD”!
SALUD! Y por muchas charlas, risas y abrazos,
Cris
Gracias, querida Cris, tienes razón, gran parte de la salud es vida completa con relaciones sólidas, sonrisas y caminar entre lugares todos los días.
(Practicing my Spanish, it says “you are correct, so much of health is life complete with strong relationships, smiles, and walking between places every day.”)